LifeSkills Training

The Texas Department of State Health Services awarded Leon County Community Coalition funding to provide LifeSkills , a school-based program, in the Leon County schools.

 In proposing this program, LCCC staff felt that the most appropriate prevention strategy is life skills training to arrest and reverse anti social behavior and reinforce positive behaviors. Consistent with the proposed target population in Leon County, Life Skills Training was tested with elementary and middle school youth aged 8-14 and is designed to intervene with students before they actively begin risky behaviors such as experimentation with alcohol and drugs and to assist students to reduce existing substance abuse. This curriculum has also been proven effective in rural populations, such as Leon County, and with all genders, races, and ethnicities. It is designed to influence major social and psychological factors - such as those discussed above - that promote the initiation and early use of substances.

 LCCC staff will work with elementary and middle school students in Buffalo, Normangee, Oakwood and Leon schools using Life Skills Training, a SAMHSA model curriculum. LST is divided into five major components: 1) a cognitive component concerning the short and long term consequences of substance abuse; 2) a decision-making component designed to foster the development of critical thinking; 3) a coping skills training component designed to provide students with techniques for coping with anxiety; 4) a social skills training component; and 5) a self-improvement project.